Memes at war

The mix of reels, memes and commentary—more than any policy brief – is fascinating enough for a detailed deliberation. Visually striking and sarcastic, these digital artefacts push back against claims made by State actors. They offer a significant scope to examine the evolving role of memes as an expressive and strategic communication tool during the recent Iran-US war, which has triggered seismic uproar across multiple fronts worldwide. From a very traditional point of view, during periods of geopolitical tension, communication has often been defined by a calculative, restrained, and protocol-oriented approach. Recent unfolding exchanges in the form of a digital encounter have given rise to another genre of communication, meme-countering diplomacy, with surprising prominence. 

Memes were considered the information product of Internet culture and are often considered babble in the periphery of serious discourse. However, with the advancement of convergent technologies and online spaces, memes have evolved from simple jokes on niche forums into a powerful medium of communication. Over the past two months, the world has witnessed the emergence of memes from cultural artefact to a State-backed strategic instrument as a counter-narrative, diplomatic signal, and psychological weapon. 

What makes the US–Iran meme war analytically interesting is the asymmetry between the two sides. As propaganda scholar Nancy Snow put it: “Whoever controls the meme controls the mood." The United States, with its global supremacy in the tactical military arena and media infrastructure, is releasing videos stitched together from Wii Sports game clips and the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. These contents aim to portray the US as an inevitable and dominant force among the public, especially young individuals, to motivate them in the recruitment process and to serve as a retention tool for domestic consensus. There are allegations that the Trump administration used songs, images, and other copyrighted content in its social media videos without obtaining permission from their creators. 

Gazing into the Iranian digital strategy, there is active use of State-affiliated accounts, the social media handles of the Iranian embassy, and an independent YouTube channel named Akhbar Enfejari (Explosive News), which has come up with many of these viral AI-generated pieces of content in fluent English, targeted directly at global audiences. A viral video portraying Lego-style Trump in a panicked call with Satan and Netanyahu, the animated content deliberately snatches the gravitas associated with US authority. This reduction of an individual to this symbolic character demystifies US hegemony and its leadership. What is particularly striking, however, is the source of some of this content. Iranian authorities, often criticised for maintaining a tightly regulated digital environment at home, are simultaneously deploying memes with agility in the international arena. It argues that digital spaces are not merely spaces of expression but also instruments of strategy. Memes, in this context, are not accidental; they are perfectly curated to shape perception and engage global audiences.

While examining this development through the lens of soft power, Joseph Nye argues that dominant States often control the power of culture, values, and narratives. Dominant groups often set the cultural agenda, and weaker actors were recipients of global meaning. For decades, the United States has relied not only on military and economic strength but also on cultural industries. Films like Behind Enemy Lines and Tears of the Sun construct a moral geography where US intervention appears necessary and justified. 

This war has challenged this narrative dominance and decentralised digital cultures, especially memes that satirise and subvert these representations. Iran, from a military point of view, was outmatched by the US but, through its meme-based communication, attempted to achieve parity in global attention and emotional resonance. Within the global communication order, this marks a significant shift in the restructuring of the information environment in which diplomatic and military strategy must now operate. 

The 2026 US-Iran conflict will be remembered for multiple reasons, ranging from global financial uproar to energy security, human cost, and geopolitical tensions in this multipolar world. But it should also be remembered as the site that has propelled memes into a powerful State-backed instrument of persuasion and narrative control, very different from conventional diplomacy. It has bypassed the rigidity of diplomatic language, which was very much restricted to select individuals, and used it to engage audiences at the grassroots level. However, it also raises serious concerns about the convergence of humour and hostility in online spaces and about the responsible use of humour in global diplomacy.

(The writer is an assistant professor at the Department of Media Studies, Christ University)

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)